Survival of the "Poorest" ?
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THERE is an old saying that what Lancashire does 1 today the rest of the country does tomorrow. If this is still true, a volte-face by Bolton Town' Council may have widespread repercussions, to the benefit of many municipal transport Undertakings.
The council have announced their desire to amend their development plan, which is not in itself of obvious importance. The proposed amendment, however. concerns an .11-acre slum-clearance site in the town originally scheduled for industrial purposes, the greater portion of which the council now wish to employ for re-housing the people who are living in the property to be demolished there. The reason for the proposed change is that tenants in local slum-clearance areas have shown an increasing reluctance to be re-housed on the outskirts of the town, mainly because of the long journeys involved.
Prim and proper suburbia, with its trim gardens and semi-rural atmosphere, is not wanted by people who, like their forebears from the Industrial Revolution onwards, have lived their lives in dark, narrow streets of terraced houses, backyards and no gardens. Whether the idealists like it or not, these people want to stay where they are.
_Bolton's reversal of its original policy is commendably realistic. Other town councils, and particularly their transport committees, should take notice.
Do the slum-dwellers who are now helping to fill municipal buses really want to live out of town—in another bus operator's territory? Will they pay the extra fare to continue to work at the factory in_whose shadow they have lived for years, or will they find other jobs near their new homes? Is it wise to reduce their temptation to leave the television set for an evening at the films by adding five miles to their bus journey?
The working man may yet rescue municipal transport from some of its difficulties. It is not for nothing that the bus is known as the " poor " man's car.